Thoughts on the performance

[Berkeley_Eagle]

just got home and WOW what a great team performance, Manlys forwards absolutley dominated, Best game this season from Kite, Glenn Stewart and Choc Watmough were lethal, Kieran Foran really stepped up tonight as well and has put the pressure on Des to just try and drop him back to 20s as far as I'm concerned the 5/8 possie is his forever more, he reminds me of Tooves a little with his tough defence and is very good with the ball, Matai also had his best game for 09 as well, only criticism I have was with Orfords kicks should be finding grass a lot more especially next wek against the Grub but otherwise a good captains knock, Georgie Rose is certainly crowd fave on the hill as the Georgie chant went up a few times and I thought he was great as well, Brett still seems a bit hesitant but he will be back to his brilliant best soon

 

[The Wheel]

Agree BE, best team performance of the season so far - we need another 4 (maybe 3) in a row now

 

[ads]

I'm so glad we drove up and back yesterday. The 7 hour drive was worth it for that game.

We rock adn we're back in it.

 

[ssar]

FANTASTIC to see the Maroon & White engine firing on most cylinders.. It's about time.
Over the past several weeks they have had a few said cylinders seized up on & off

But not this weekend.
Such sweet, sweet revenge to welcome the Titans to real footy at Brookvale, with a crushing demolition.
Manly were pretty relentless - kept giving it to them and pushing them most of the plays.

That first effort by Watmough WAS A TRY too (ok, I had bet on him 1st try scorer, but it was anyway!)

What a great night under the full moon @ Brooky!
Go Sea Eagles!

 

[DSM5]

I couldn't see why it wasn't.  But 'ref's calls' haven't gone our way all year.  A conspiracy I'd suggest. 

 

[The Gronk]

He was offside.  He should have let stewart ground it and then it would have been a try

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Awesome stuff to watch, very reminiscent of the match last year v the Titans, Beaver's 1st farewell, where we just smashed them with our defence and won 28-6

That D was what I have been waiting for all season, and is what we built the win on last season

Not too confident about heading to Melbourne friday night, but I certainly think our forwards are superior to theirs, and they have had 2 soft lead in games which could be a good or a bad thing

Every player bar JWH played a pretty good game.
Good to see Kite, Perry, Hall and Matai back to making hard, straight metres.
Orford has a top match, on the back of the forwards dominating and Ballin hitting form again.

If Lyon is fit, bloody tough one for Dessie. Personally, Foran can't go anywhere for mine. So that leaves Farrar v Matai

I would have to take Matai, simply for the metres he makes when we are in trouble in our own end, and his recent record in big games for Manly

 

[Downie]

Could Foran play lock? Very tough in defence, is always in the right place at the right time, backs up everywhere and is a great runner of the ball. No one in our backline deserves to be dropped so if King's out another week I'd rather have Foran interchange with Bailey than JWH, who was pretty poor last night. Strong runner of the ball but he just can't tackle. And when King returns he can just replace Hall.

 

[eagle_predator]

Preston Campbell summed it up really well by saying that he felt that he had just been hit by a truck.

 

[Chip and Chase]

Haven't seen the game yet but by the sounds of things the forwards really hit their straps, about time too. The go forward and defence against the Sharks was woeful. We haven't had a dominant forward game since we beat the Bulldogs, so it's nice to think they might be building to something. Fingers crossed that this gives them (Kite in particular) some confidence and we stick it to the Scum next weekend.

As for Foran, there is plenty to like about the kid and you'd be inclined to try and find a spot for him. I'd prefer to leave him at 5/8 and put Lyon in the centres when he returns, but give Jamie a bit of playmaking licence. That means one of Farrar or Matai will have to miss out. Normally I'd stick with Matai, but his form has been patchy and his neck injury just keeps taking the edge off his play, so Farrar might be the safer bet.

The other option is for Foran to take LeSnak's bench spot. I'm sure he could handle dummy half with ease and also gives more utility value to cover outside back / halves  injuries. Le Snak hasn't been a major contributor this year (I don't know what his effort was like last night) and he seems to have lost a little impact.

 

[Mal Cochrane]

I was wondering if Snake didn't in fact play watmough onside when he scored, but in the end it didn't matter

 

[DSM5]

Does anyone have a view as to the penalty in the sixth minute?  Why take the two when we were going forward and looking good?  A puzzle at the time.  Didn't matter in the end but...

 

[Mal Cochrane]

I think we all like to see the tap instead of the kick, but if it was a close game, it would have been an easy 2 points that we got. Easy in hindsight, but maybe they just wanted to settle things down and take the 2 points while on offer....start to play like semi's football.

 

[CliffyIsGod]

If Lyon is back next week, Foran still plays and Bailey drops off.

 

[Rambo1987]

Great effort last nite but we need to be consistantly good - last weeks effort is burnt into my memory.

Foran has to be in the 17 - Heath will have to drop off unfortunately

 

[swoop]

Foran@5/8th, Lyon centre, Farrar utility bench.

Le strange or JWH drop off. BTW I thought JWH was awful last night, lost the ball a few times.

 

[ssar]

If Manly had (still) put in a very good performance last night, but the Titans really fired and just beat Manly, it would have still been a pretty good game all round, and not a bad result for Manly who would then next week travel to the Gold Coast for thier first finals game instead of Melbourne (I think?)

However, with the Sea Eagles' dominance and proven relentlessness during most of that game last night, that alone can lead to good team confidence, cohesion and success on the field during the next couple of games regardless of opponents & location..
Let's hope for that!
Go Manly!!

--

And Re: Foran - Yea, I would drop LeStrange, put Matai or Foran on the bench and inject either of them mightily around the 20min mark into the 1st half.

 

[Nutzcraw]

Ssar, I had $10 on Watmough, G. Stewart, B. Stewart, D. Williams and B. Farrar for first try scorer.

Bloody Foran got it! It was bitter sweet though.

 

[Nutzcraw]

I made it back though by having $50 on Manly 19+

 

[TokyoEagle]

Very few mistakes
Great go forward which created tons of space for the backs,
Controlled the game very well, was good to see Orford put the ball on the ground and get back to back sets of 6 or make them run out from their line.
Brutal defence, how many times did our D force the Tits to turn it over.

Was a great TEAM performance, hopefully we get a bit of a roll on from this game.